Memories of Midway: A collection of stories
by soiheardyoulikedpanzers
Summary: With the Atlantic Abyssal fleet defeated, the ships of the Allies are finally free to turn their sights toward supporting the Japanese effort in the Pacific. Lingering emotions from the past make for rough seas, and the two sides don't necessarily get along.


**So this was a little idea I had that decided to find it's way onto paper (word processor?).**  
**I was a bit surprised that this sort of fic wasn't attempted before. Perhaps it's a general fear of OC's, or perhaps Kancolle already has a great diversity of characters in which OC's and other nation's ships are not needed. This will be a collection of short stories involving the interactions between Allied and Axis ships, now Kanmusu's, years after the end of WW2. The chapters may include characters introduced in past chapters, but they won't necessarily be linked. I will try to give each Allied ship their own personality and traits based off of their actual performance in battle, or various quirks they had. Do note that I am not a historian and as such some of the traits I give the allied ship girls may not entirely make sense. If that is the case please do notify me and if I find your points valid, I'll see if I can fix it in either a chapter re-write or in a later chapter.**

**With that said, I do not own Kantai Collection, and nor do I own any of the Characters in Kantai Collection.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The news hit like lightning and spread like wildfire. The United States Navy and Royal Navy Atlantic coalition had successfully driven the Abyssal fleet out of the Atlantic ocean.

The various cheers erupted through the mess hall where the mandatory assembly was held.

"Furthermore, the Atlantic Coalition has pledged to send reinforcements to the Pacific Front. What that means, is that we will be getting more ships in our ranks quite soon." The Japanese admiral shouted.

The cheers slowly died down to murmurs.

With the volume level in the room diminished, the Japanese admiral returned to his regular voice.

"Over the next few weeks ships from the Atlantic fleet will now be stationed here to help our efforts in the Pacific. Please be friendly to your new comrades. Dismissed." The admiral finished.

The admiral shook his head as he walked back to his office.

When it was revealed that the kanmusus retained their memories of their service in the Second World War, it was decided to keep the allied and axis ships separate to minimize conflicts between the ships. The United States, Britain, and France would take on the Atlantic. The Japanese, Germans, and Italians would take on the vast expanses of the Pacific. The Russians seemed to be doing their own thing, focusing on the north. To date, the Germans, being halfway across the world in Europe, had only sent over Z1, Z3, and Bismark. The Italians? They were too preoccupied with the Mediterranean to send any help. For all intents and purposes, the Japanese were alone against the Abyssal's Pacific fleet.

The Japanese admiral knew that Japan needed help, but why were the Atlantic ship girls sent here? Couldn't they just use the western coast of North America and continue pushing westward? The decisions of the higher ups at times just didn't make sense... The last thing he needed was to have his units torn into two factions, and clashes between ship girls could prove disastrous.

As he walked into his office, his secretary ship, Hyuuga, looked at him with concern.

"Is there something wrong, Admiral?"

"I just don't think it's a good idea to be sending some of those allied ships here. Most of our girls don't even trust our own submarines... Kanmusus aren't like normal ships. They're more human than ship. You can't just put a bunch of them together and expect them to work well. You understand, right?"

* * *

**Memories of Midway: Part 1**

* * *

"Enemy dive bombers! Incoming!"

Akagi looked up to see a swarm of dive bombers diving right at her. She turned to the side, running in a zig-zag pattern to try and shake them off, but like a swarm of angry bees, they kept on coming.

The sounds of explosions boomed behind her.

"Kaga!?" She turned around to see the fate of her comrade. Her clothes were torn, and her flight deck peppered with holes. Kaga was already waist deep in water, and slowly sinking further. The mortally wounded Kaga pointed upwards.

Akagi looked up to see even more dive bombers headed right toward her. Like a deer in headlights, she found herself paralyzed. She closed her eyes and braced for impact...

Akagi burst awake at yet another nightmare. This wasn't her regular "run out of bauxite and so we have to scrap you" nightmare that really bordered more on the edge of "bad dream" than actual sweat-inducing-terror-fuel nightmare. It was a dream she hadn't had in a long time. Long enough so that she mostly forgot that it was a nightmare she had before, but experiencing it again brought memories back.

She found herself back in Kaga's futon, with the moonlight gleaming through the window. She had her own bed of course, but she found herself increasing sleeping with Kaga in Kaga's own futon. It was warmer, more comfortable, and gave Akagi warm and fuzzy feelings. Besides, Kaga didn't mind, and even showed subtle hints of pleasure with Akagi's presence.

"That was odd...", she thought to herself. She snuggled closer to Kaga in an effort to comfort herself, almost hugging the other carrier, let her sleepiness take over her fear, and dozed back to sleep.

* * *

_The Next Day_

The girl was reminiscent of an old continental army soldier. She wore a blue tricorn hat, and a long blue coat with white trim adorned with shiny gold buttons. Even her weapon spoke of the 18th century. If it weren't for the flight deck built into her musket, and the conning tower peering over her shoulder, she would have looked like a revolutionary war reenactor.

She had blond hair tied back with a blue bow tie, and had brown eyes.

"I'm USS Yorktown. Pleased to meet you all!" She said with enthusiasm. The crowd of Japanese ship girls continued staring at her.

She opened her mouth but no words came out. Her mouth dried up and she started sweating hard. The 18th century getup wasn't helping either. Why was she so nervous? She was alright with crowds, but for some reason this time she felt tiny.

Sensing this, the Japanese Admiral took over.

"This is our first friend from America. I expect you will all treat her well. Dismissed!"

Yorktown let out a sigh as she grabbed most of her bags. What exactly did she get herself into?

Then again, she thought to herself, she probably was the most logical choice to go out of all of her sisters.

Hornet tended to be a bit hard to work with. While she was a good soldier, and did everything well, she was a generally aloof person, and was the type to hold grudges and be passive aggressive to anyone she didn't like.

Enterprise... God forbid they send over Enterprise... Sure she was gung-ho about everything, and sure she was really good at her job, but that girl just didn't know when to shut up. Anything that came into her little head she had to speak out. It didn't help that Enterprise was pretty full of herself. Yorktown remembered scolding Enterprise back in Naval School for making USS Lexington break into tears.

Lexington was the type of girl who tried her hardest, but just didn't have the talent. Of course, after many, many "fleet problems" she did get the hang of it, but Enterprise was always leaps and bounds ahead of her. While Lexington wasn't exactly a bad student, she was at the bottom of the class. Enterprise on the other hand, was always at the top. When Enterprise and Lexington were teamed up for a training exercise, Lexington of course made a mistake, and Enterprise chewed her out for it. It was just too much for poor old Lexington, who ended up in tears at Enterprise's berating.

Oh Lexington, such a sweet little girl who just wasn't cut out for fighting... whatever happened to her?

Her thoughts were interrupted by her realizing she had absolutely no idea where she was going. The admiral had given her a map of the naval district, but it didn't help very much, as she actually had no idea where she was at the time. She knew she had to get to the Aircraft Carrier dorms, but that was about it. She was tested and certified a fluent Japanese _speaker_, but the accelerated class she took barely touched on _reading_ Japanese. How was she going to actually get around this place without any knowledge of written Japanese?

"Hi! You're the new face around here, right?"

Yorktown turned to see a girl running towards her. She was wearing a black skirt, boots seeming to go up to her thighs, and a loose fitting white top with split sleeves. She wore a gold colored headpiece with two paddle-like strips protruding out of the sides.

"I'm Kongou-des! You must be Yorktown?"

Kongou extended her arm for a handshake. Yorktown took it.

"You must be lost... Here, let me help." Kongou snatched the map, whipped out a pencil, and started scribbling all over it. When she handed Yorktown the map back, everything was nicely translated from Japanese to English.

Yorktown thanked Kongou for the help, picked up her bags yet again, and set off.

"Does she always just run around looking for someone to help?", she thought to herself. Kongou reminded her a bit of Enterprise before the war. Happy-go-lucky, and always willing to help. The thought brought a smile to her face.

After she had oriented herself, she headed toward the Aircraft Carrier dorms.

Once she was there, she found a ship girl out front sweeping out the front porch area. The ship girl stopped sweeping for a second to wave.

"Uhh, is this the Aircraft carrier dorms?" Yorktown asked.

"Ahh, you must be Yorktown-san. We've been expecting you. Please do make yourself at home here."

The girl spoke with a very motherly tone, and Yorktown felt almost entirely at ease just listening to her.

"Let me show you to your room." The ship girl signaled for Yorktown to follow her.

"I am Houshou. If you need anything, just feel free to ask me." The ship girl introduced herself.

Yorktown decided she liked this Houshou. She was kind and quite forgiving.

As they walked down the hallway of the dorm, she couldn't help but notice some people staring. And for good reason. Most of them were dressed in traditional Japanese archery clothing. Yorktown, being dressed in the outfit of a 18th century infantryman stuck out like a sore thumb. Seeing as most of them were archers, the musket wasn't helping.

She wondered how many of these ships she had actually met in battle before. The names Akagi, Kaga, Soryuu, and Hiryuu came to mind.

Hiryuu... The name bounced around in her head. That was the ship that nearly sunk her that fateful day. Of course, Yorktown found no point in having any ill-feelings. After all, Yorktown did send out quite a few attack squadrons as well that day, hitting and sinking Soryuu...

They eventually reached Yorktown's room. Houshou told Yorktown where to find her, gave her the keys, and was then on her way.

Yorktown entered her new room. The door was a bit tight, and the hinges creaked. She made a mental note to get some lubricant to fix the hinges.

The room was a medium sized dorm room. While it was the size of two-person dorm back at home, she had the entire room to herself. She wasn't complaining.

The room itself was almost square, with completely white walls and one curtained window. The only furniture was a coat rack, drawer, and a Japanese futon. The sheets were folded neatly right next to the futon, which was in the center of the room. The drawer was in the back against the far wall, across from the door. The coat rack was by the door.

She placed her tricorn hat and coat on the coat rack, haphazardly placed her bags on the ground, and practically threw herself on the futon. Expecting to bounce as if on a bed, she hit the floor with a thud.

"This'll take some time to get used to..." she muttered to herself as she rubbed her back.

She decided to take a look at the schedule the admiral had given her. Interestingly, this was already typed in English.

Breakfast was from 7:00AM to 9:00AM at the main mess hall, on a first-come-first serve basis. The mess hall was open and you came and left as you pleased. Most of the sortie and training assignments were posted up on a board in the dinning hall. After that the long expedition fleets and training fleets were to depart.

The suggested Lunch time was from 12:00 to 1:00, as that was when the admiral promised to not give any ships assignments during that time, though the mess hall wasn't open. Apparently, most dorms had a built-in kitchen, so lunch was generally run on the dorm level. Yorktown wondered how good of a cook her new comrades were... While she wasn't exactly a bad cook, she wasn't a world class culinary genius either. As the normal western palate was much different from the eastern palate, Yorktown wondered if the other ships would like her cooking, and if she could even find the proper ingredients to make most of the recipes she did know how to make.

After that was the majority of sorties and short-time expeditions. This was the most tiring part of the day, and the bulk of the day's events were to happen at this time. Yorktown expected the whole district to be quite empty.

Dinner was to happen from 6:00PM to 7:00 PM, in the main mess hall. It seemed to be the most formal of them all, with a set start and end. All ships were to report to the main dining hall, as that was when most of the important announcements were made. Of course, today was an exception, as Yorktown was introduced during breakfast.

After that night battles and sorties were to be carried out, though the bath houses and hot springs were open at this time as well, leaving night battles a generally unappealing task.

Putting down the schedule, Yorktown wondered what exactly she would be doing until lunch. She eventually decided on unpacking all of her bags, and getting busy arranging the room to her liking.

* * *

The next day, after breakfast, the admiral had ordered Yorktown to the training grounds as a way to brush up her skills. At the training grounds, she met yet another carrier doing target practice with her bow. She was wearing an orange top with a green skirt. The training grounds were a large complex of stations around a main lake. Yorktown and the other carrier were at the firing range.

Yorktown took the firing line next to the other carrier.

"Excuse me, but do you mind if I join you here?"

The other carrier replied, "Oh, go ahead."

Yorktown eyed the target across the lake. This one should be easy...

* * *

Hiryuu smiled. This was her chance to prove that she could still cut it against American carriers after that battle years ago. Ever since that fateful day, she always wondered how she could have won it. After all, she did sink two of those american carriers.

She looked next to her at Yorktown seemingly fumbling around with her gun. Hiryuu was curious as to how the Americans were able to make something so clumsy viable for shipgirls...

She knocked an arrow and aimed at the target across the lake. Releasing the bowstring, she watched as the arrow turned into three torpedo bombers, which skimmed across the water and scored three direct hits.

* * *

Yorktown was impressed by the other carrier's accuracy, and decided it was her turn. She opened the pan and pulled the hammer back to half-cock, bit into the musket cartridge to open it, poured the powder in the pan, closed the pan, then placed the cartridge in the barrel. Taking out the ram-rod, she started pounding the bullet into the back of the barrel.

Once that was all compacted, she lifted the musket to firing position, planting the butt of the firearm firmly in her shoulder. She aimed, then squeezed the trigger.

*Click*

The hammer came down, but the gun didn't fire.

* * *

Hiryuu was almost brought to laughter. Not only was the musket hard and clumsy to load, it also wouldn't fire. She took the chance to fire yet another arrow. This time picking dive bombers. The three bombers formed from the arrow made quite the dazzling display diving and scoring three direct hits on the target.

* * *

Yorktown blushed a bit at her mistake. She didn't move the hammer back to full-cock. A newbie mistake, but a fatal one if done in battle. She fully-cocked the musket, again aimed, then fired.

*BANG*

What seemed like three squadrons of both fighters and torpedo bombers flew right out of the barrel. The bombers released their torpedoes while the fighters circling over the torpedo bombers as they made their attack run.

There were quite the amount of hits on target.

* * *

Hiryuu looked at the swarm of fighters and bombers pounding at the target. Her mouth agape. She finally could see how the Americans made a musket viable for combat. As the american planes were landing on the flight deck of Yorktown, she called out to her,

"Hey, do all of the american carriers have muskets?"

Yorktown looked up to Hiryuu and replied, "No... I'm the only one. Enterprise uses a bow, while Hornet uses a Crossbow."

Hiryuu was again confused at the decisions of the Americans. It took her many training sessions just to master basic archery, Much less carrier flight operations. With something like a musket, even an inaccurate shot would be compensated just by sheer numbers of planes. Why not give every carrier one?

Yorktown continued, "It's been a while since I've kept in contact with Essex... apparently her sister Intrepid was called in for experiments with bolt-actions... Wonder where that went."

Bolt-Actions? If one bullet from a musket could produce a large amount of aircraft...

She shuddered at the thought. Imagine giving one to an Aviation Battleship...

* * *

When both had their fill of target destruction, they both headed back to the Carrier dorms.

"Say, I didn't quite catch your name..." Yorktown asked the other Carrier.

"Oh... I'm Hiryuu. You probably already know me from back then."

Yorktown stopped for a moment. She felt a chill through her back at that name.

"Y-You're Hiryuu?"

Hiryuu nodded. "I'm the one that sank _two_ of your carriers that day."

Yorktown was confused... Enterprise and Hornet were untouched at Midway... And the fact that Hiryuu seemed to dive right into the touchy subject... Though is Hiryuu was willing to talk about Midway, then Yorktown might as well.

"Two?"

Hiryuu grinned. "Yup. It was me alone against three, and I evened the odds. Two waves of bombers, two carriers sank." She bragged.

Yorktown thought back to that day... two waves of bombers, two carriers sank... Her mind clicked. She let out a chuckle. It was her time to brag.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but you didn't sink two carriers that day."

"But I've checked the after-battle reports. Two _Enterprise-class_ carriers sunk!"

Yorktown broke out into a hearty laugh. "First off, I'm the leading ship of the _Yorktown-class_ aircraft carriers, not Enterprise. Secondly, _I_ was hit by two bomber waves that day. Thirdly, I never sank from your aircraft. I sank from a submarine attack. You can thank I-168 for that!"

Hiryuu blushed. She and I-168 did get into arguments often over the results of Midway. I-168 kept claiming she had sunk Yorktown, while Hiryuu kept claiming to have sunk two ships. If that was true, it wouldn't add up. The US didn't lose every one of their carriers.

"You're saying that I mistook you for two different carriers?"

Yorktown nodded. "A little damage control training really goes a long way, doesn't it?"

"B-bu-buuut..." Hiryuu's heart sank. She loved to brag to the First Carrier Division about how she evened the odds, but now she seemed foolish. Did she really not do anything? She looked away.

Yorktown smiled at the other carrier, who fell silent.

"No hard feelings, okay? You fought bravely that day as well. I really thought I was going to sink after that second wave."

Hiryuu looked back up. "Huh?"

"You gave me a run for my money that day. Your planes went through a hailstorm of anti-aircraft fire, and still managed to knock me out."

"But you just said you didn't sink..."

"If it weren't for the damage control, I'd have sunk for sure. Besides, you were the only one able to send out a successful attack force even when outnumbered and in low moral. To be honest, I look up to you for that."

Hiryuu started smiling as well. "You did manage to sink four of us as well. And if you managed to fix yourself enough for my bombers to think you were a separate carrier, I should be looking up to you."

As Yorktown and Hiryuu walked side-by-side back to the dorms. Their talk degenerating into the average girl-talk and gossip.

"So Kaga and Akagi are like _that_?"

"Junyou did say she saw them in the same bed..."

By the time they reached the dorm, Yorktown was well versed in the different Carriers and the gossip surrounding them.

"Getting to know the different carriers just might be easier than I thought." Yorktown said to herself as she lay in her bed. Perhaps she would meet the other carriers the next day.

* * *

**Wow, that was a lot longer than I expected. I meant for this to be one long story/arc, but I think I'll cut it here. Part two should include the 1st carrier division, and Soryuu. Next story/arc will probably revolve around USS Johnston.**


End file.
